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A photo of a 5-year-old boy studying in a dark hut, with only natural morning light streaming through a small window, has been selected for the People's Choice Award in the SPIE International Year of Light Photo Contest.
The contest was sponsored by SPIE Professional, the quarterly magazine of SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, as part of the International Year of Light observance. SPIE is a Founding Partner.
Captured by Javanese travel and landscape photographer Handi Laksono, the winning photo was taken after Laksono hiked three hours to the remote village of Wae Rebo on Flores Island in Indonesia.
Wae Rebo's only lighting source is solar, either
direct sunlight or a few small solar panels, Laksono said. He noted that the solar
panel in the house he visited powers a single light bulb that is used only for a few hours in the evening.
"For the children who wish to study
in their houses in the morning, the light from the small windows is the opti…

If it wanted to, NASA’s Mars Curiosity Rover could stretch
its 7-foot arm up from its 10-foot-high body and slam-dunk a basketball.
Admittedly, it isn’t likely that any of NASA’s Rovers -– cars
on Mars, as some call them –- will find any basketball hoops on
the Red Planet.
But the space agency’s newest robotic Mars explorer, the
Curiosity, has found evidence of ancient lakes, captured images that reveal the
composition of rocks on the planet’s surface, and done something many of us
have done: taken selfies to post on FaceBook.
Curiosity’s discoveries are far from over. The robot is just
now reaching the foothills of the lofty (5.5 km, or 18,000 feet) Mount Sharp,
with its mission to scale the peak and report back about what it finds along
the way.
That in itself is amazing. On top of that, the telling of
that story by scientists such as Melissa Rice, a member of the Curiosity team and
a professor at Western Washington University, turns out to be a powerful way to
get kids interested …

Authored by SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, the Photonics for a Better World blog focuses on research news and the many ways technologies are applied to advance science and improve quality of life, and on the people who make that happen.